A launch or not a launch
The beautiful collection of poetry Desert Patterns is launched at a non-launch in a Desert Garden.
At the Olive Pink Botanic Garden in Alice Springs, Central Australia, with an idea of ‘no clustering groups’ which is now coined ‘social distancing’ we launched Desert Patterns in a desert garden to wallabies, a wide variety of interested birds, skinks, the wonderful vegetation of this arid garden and to one very curious Euro ( a mountain wallaby who hopped down from Annie Meyers Hill to join the frey.
as I read ‘quiet stillness settles into our very soul’
and continued:
‘maybe it’s the way the light falls
throws its arms around the old familiar cliffs
brings them alive beckons come
come’
desert patterns
the landscape dreams
of caterpillars and rainbow serpents
composed
sculptured
moulded for aeons
wind water sand
carved chiseled hefted
hewn
from rock and clay
heave of ochre red
weave curve wave
desert patterns
draw us in 
every escarpment every contour
named and known
as a mother knows its children
garments of beauty
that dress our earth
like whims of scarves
desert patterns
draw us in
the night sky dreams
of journeys emus echidnas
black spaces
compose
shimmer
imagination
reflects ancient stories
desert patterns
draw us in
desert garden 18/03/2020 ( written the day of the launch . Not in the poetry book)
already some have gathered under the umbrellas
conversations tête-à-tête over coffee
hushed murmurs like one makes in a cathedral
standing in the presence of awe-inspiring domes
and zig-zag shimmer
of coloured floors of lead-light reflection
here dreamy gold light catches the tips of ghost gums –
Namatjira’s signature –that breaks the silence from long ago
how arrogant in our colonising we had become
from rocky boulders rustic-red breaks in the hills
flames out in mica shine
wallabies laze in shady groves of Mulga.
magpies sing from spindly river gums
and one wallaby sits in red sand nearby
no doubt waiting for left over fare.
all morning the magpies watch me in the garden
their bodies wiry sleek and mottled
a good reminder of yin and yang
the balance that we always seek
I write in my journal sip my coffee
nibble on toasted fruit loaf with tiny strips of cherry
spread with whipped cinnamon butter.
Around us spinifex pigeons enjoy the company
I am startled by beauty wherever i look
and I wonder how proud Olive Pink would be
to see us all enjoying the peace of her long ago vision
Mother and joey sun set from Anzac Hill in Alice
Thanks to all our supporters, . Thanks to Ginninderra Press and to the magic of Inland Australia.